1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor apparatus, and more specifically relates to a motor apparatus including a motor driven with pulse width modulation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in the case where information recorded on a reproduction-only optical disc such as CD (Compact Disc) is reproduced optically or in the case where information is optically recorded on a recording/reproduction optical disc such as a CD-R (CD-Recordable), it is necessary to rotate an optical disc which is subject for recording or reproduction at a preset rotating speed.
At this time, as a driving apparatus to be used for the rotation, a so-called spindle motor is used the most generally. As this spindle motor, conventionally a spindle motor which is driven by a linear driver has been used generally.
Here, there will be explained below a summary of the spindle motor driven by the linear driver with reference to FIG. 3A.
As shown in FIG. 3A, a general linear driver LD is constituted so that an amplitude of a driving signal to be applied from the outside (more concretely, a driving signal having a sine waveform, for example) is controlled based on a power-supply voltage Vcc and a load signal, which has a voltage VD of an amplitude smaller than that of the power-supply voltage Vcc and has a waveform similar to that of the driving signal and has a current value of ID, drives a load L (in the case of information reproduction or information recording, the spindle motor is the load L).
At this time, as for the conventional linear driver LD, the power-supply voltage Vcc is reduced to the voltage VD and a load signal which coincides with a characteristic of the load L is generated so as to drive the linear driver LD. However, as a result, in the linear driver LD, an electric power
PD which is represented by:
PD=(Vccxe2x88x92VD)xc3x97IDxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
is consumed as a dissipation power, and the linear driver LD itself is heated due to this dissipation power.
In the information reproduction apparatus, the information recording apparatus or the like in which the spindle motor is the load L, there arises a problem that since the current value ID of the load signal is large, a rise in temperature due to the heating of the linear driver LD itself occasionally becomes too large to be ignored (more concretely, for example, the rise in temperature has a bad influence upon another integrated circuit or the like).
Therefore, in recent years, a lot of researches in the structure in which a spindle motor which is driven by a PWM driver using a so-called pulse width modulation driving system instead of this linear driver LD is used to rotate an optical disc are being done.
There will be explained below a summary of the PWM driver with reference to FIG. 3B.
As shown in FIG. 3B, the PWM driver PD is constituted so that a switch in the PWM driver PD is switched to be controlled by using a driving signal having a pulse waveform applied from the outside as a switching signal, and a load signal in which a voltage changes in a pulse form between a power-supply voltage Vcc and a ground voltage is generated to drive the load L.
In the case where the load L is driven by the PWM driver PD, since a voltage of the load signal changes in a pulse form between the power-supply voltage Vcc and the ground voltage, the value of (Vccxe2x88x92VD) in the above equation (1) can be approximately zero. As a result, there is an advantage that the heating of the PWM driver PD itself can be reduced.
However, in the case where the PWM driver PD having the above structure is used, there arose a problem that an electric noise current is generated and this has a bad influence upon an operation of a pickup which emits and receives a light beam for recording or reproduction.
Namely, the PWM driver PD is driven by a pulse type driving signal as mentioned above, but in this case an electric current which flows through a motor coil in the spindle motor changes abruptly. A so-called dielectric magnetic field is generated around the motor coil due to this abrupt change in the electric current, and as a result, even if the motor coil is insulated from a metallic housing of the spindle motor, a dielectric current similar to an eddy current is generated in the metallic housing.
This dielectric current flows as a noise current into the pickup, and this has a bad influence upon the operation of the integrated circuit or the like provided in the pickup (particularly a bad influence as instability of a ground voltage).
At this time, in the case where a frequency of the noise current in the PWM driver PD coincides with an operational frequency of the integrated circuit or the like, a particularly remarkable influence appears.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems. It is an object of the present invention to provide a motor apparatus having a structure which is capable of effectively protecting a pickup or the like from a noise current generated from a motor driven with pulse width modulation.
The above object of the present invention can be achieved by the following motor apparatus. The motor apparatus includes a motor such as a spindle motor driven with pulse width modulation, and an insulating device for insulating an object to be protected, which should be protected from a noise current generated from the motor, from the motor.
According to the motor apparatus, since the object to be protected is insulated from the motor driven with pulse width modulation, the object to be protected can be protected from the noise current generated from the motor effectively.
In one aspect of the motor apparatus, the object to be protected is supported by a frame member such as a frame, and the insulating device is a fixing member such as a spacer made of an insulating material for fixing the motor to the frame member.
According to this aspect, since the motor driven with pulse width modulation is insulated from the frame member which supports the object to be protected, the object to be protected can be protected from the noise current generated from the motor effectively.
In another aspect of the motor apparatus, the fixing member also serves as a spacer for forming a gap with a preset length between the motor and the frame member.
According to this aspect, since the motor is fixed to the frame member by the insulating fixing member which also serves as the spacer, a number of parts of the motor apparatus is reduced so that its structure can be simplified.
In another aspect of the motor apparatus, the insulating device is made of plastic resin.
According to this aspect, transmission of the noise current to the object to be protected can be cut off effectively.
In another aspect of the motor apparatus, the object to be protected is pickup device such as a pickup for optically recording information to an information recording medium or optically reproducing information from the information recording medium. Further, the motor is a spindle motor for rotating the information recording medium.
According to this aspect, a signal which is generated in the pickup device at the time of recording or reproducing information can be protected effectively from the noise current generated from the motor.